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Thursday NFL sales all about collaboration

The NFL and its media partners have undertaken an unprecedented level of ad sales cooperation this season as four media companies — CBS, NBC, NFL Network and Twitter — are selling advertising around this fall’s “Thursday Night Football.”

While they are not negotiating deals together and are keeping their pricing secret from one another, TV network ad sales executives have been in much closer contact with the league than usual to identify potential sales targets for the Thursday night package.

So far, Lexus is the only company to cut a significant sponsorship deal across all three TV networks. Lexus will sponsor halftime shows on CBS, NBC and NFL Network. Network executives would not comment on the price Lexus paid for its sponsorships.

“Each network negotiated separately,” said Brian Matthews, the NFL’s senior vice president of media sales. “We try to facilitate conversations given that there’s existing partnerships like Lexus that we want them to talk to first. Lexus didn’t have to buy NBC. NBC took it to Lexus first.”

Last year, Lexus sponsored the halftime show on both CBS and NFL Network. NBC knows Lexus well, having sold Lexus ads on its golf, soccer and hockey telecasts.

“It was a very quick and very amicable conversation,” said Seth Winter, NBC Sports Group’s executive vice president of ad sales and marketing. “It was a no-brainer for us. We know all the people at Lexus. They know us. It made sense for both parties, and we concluded a deal quickly.”

What makes the Lexus deal unique is not only that it spans three networks, but that no other advertiser has cut a significant sponsorship deal across all three television networks. For example, sources say that Mazda has agreed to sponsor “Thursday Night Football” postgame shows on CBS and NFL Network, but not NBC. Mazda was the postgame sponsor last season on CBS and NFL Network.

Anheuser-Busch bought a presenting sponsorship to “Thursday Night Football,” but that deal was not negotiated by the TV networks. Rather, it’s an sponsorship that comes from A-B’s NFL deal.

“This is not new for us because this is our third year of ‘Thursday Night Football,’” said John Bogusz, CBS’s executive vice president of sports sales and marketing. “In the last two years, we worked with the NFL in a collaborative way, talking with them about future real estate that we both have and sponsors that we targeted.”

Overall, network ad executives are describing a robust marketplace that has not been affected by the loss of the daily fantasy category that was such a big spender last year.

“The overall upfront process may be a little bit slower than it has been in prior years, but the marketplace is very healthy,” Winter said. “If we don’t see all the money we want in the upfront, I am exceedingly confident that we’ll see it in scatter. Every indicator is that our economy is healthy.”

While they say it’s too early to determine how much of their Thursday night inventory is sold — they all say they still have a lot of business to write — they are seeing as much activity as they have in previous years.

In addition to Lexus, NBC has locked up three major advertisers as sponsors for “Thursday Night Football.” And NFL Network is nailing down sponsorships for its pregame and postgame shows.

“Our big positions are being negotiated and sold in advance of the upfront,” Matthews said. “That’s a strong sign for us. Just like in years past, we expect to be close to sold out once the season gets started.”

Ad executives say the loss of the daily fantasy category has had little effect on their business. While DraftKings and FanDuel were huge advertisers in the first part of the season, they curtailed their advertising in the second half of the season after coming under legal and political scrutiny “There’s certainly going to be some revenue that we’re not going to see this year from the category,” Winter said. “But I’m confident that other categories will replace it. Every year, something comes in and out. It’s the reality of our business. We’ll deal with it.”

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